Feed-tip for lubricators.



F. W. EDWARDS.

FEED TIP FOR LUBRICATORS. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 20, 1915.

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Patented Nov. 23, 1915.

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FRANK W'. EDWARDS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOE TO THE CHICAGO IJTJBRICATIOR COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

FEED-TIP roe LUBnIoA'ron-s.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 23, 12915.

Application filed March 20, 1915. Serial No. 15,906.

To all to hom it may concern.

Be it known that I, FRANK V. EDWARDS,

a citizen of the United States, residing at bricators, of which the following is a full, v

clear, and exact description.

The feed tips of sight feed lubricato-rs usually are frustums of cones, having the discharge duct or bore extending entirely through longitudinally and open at both ends. As the oil emerges from the point it tends to flow over downward on the tip and grow in volume in the surrounding water until its buoyancy and volume cause it to separate from the tip and float olt through the sight feed pocket to its destination. The

feed of the oil in dropsis essential as a means to visually inform the engineer that the lubricator is Working properly. hen the oil escapes from the feed tip as a film, it may eventually reach its destination, but only at a useless consumption of oil and without the engineer being able to see the feed.

The use of superheated steam has made necessary the resort to a heavier oil, because the temperature of such steam equals or exceeds the flashing point of ordinary light lubricating oil. This heavier oil forms in. drops rather more slowly than the lighter oil, and yet the need of constant and very free lubrication when superheated steam is used is quite as great and essential as when the lighter oil is used.

This invention is designed more especially to provide a feed'tip for use with the heavier oils, and so constructed as to facilitate the formation and release of drops of oil smaller in volume and in increased frequency.

The invention consists of a feed tip made partly cylindrical and ending in a sharp attenuated conical or tapering point, and

having a main longitudinal duct terminatmg in a transverse duct arranged at or about the base of the point, the point itself being solid or imperforate, so that the laterally escaping oil instead of slipping downward,

as in the case of the common conical feed tip, will tend to creep up the inclined surface of the point to 1ts terminal, and there being there ammimum of adhering surface the drop or globule will form quickly and be as quickly detached or floated oil, as I will proceed now to explain and finally claim.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is an elevation and partial section of parts of a well-known sight feed condensation displacement lubricator equipped with the feed tip of the present invention.

scale, of another form of sight teed pocket, of approved construction, containing the feed tip of the present invention. Figs. 3, 4' and 5 are elevations of as many different terms of feed tips embodying the present invention. Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of a sight teed pocket like that shown in Fig. 2, but equipped with the prior art conical feed tip for purposes of comparison, as will appear hereinafter.

1 may represent the oil bowl; 2 the 0011- denser; 3 the boiler connection; 4: a circulating pipe; 5 the upper feed arm; 6 the lower feed arm, and 7 a sight feed pocket provided with a bulls-eye or other observation glass 8, all of which and the other shown parts, excepting the feed tip itself, being of any usual or approved construction.

The feed tipv as here shown may comprise ahead 9 having the wrench-engaging lugs 10 and the externally screw-threaded portion 11 by which the feed tip may be secured fluid-tight in the sight feed pocket. Above the screwthreadedportion 11 is a slender cylindrical portion 12 provided with a longitudinal duct 13 which extends throughfrom the head 9 to a predetermined height within the cylindrical portion, but not clear through theentire length F 1g. 2 1s a longitudinal section, on a larger of the feed tip; and in order to affordan exit for the duct, I prefer to use a transverse duct 14: arranged at the upper end of the duct 13. This transverse duct 14 may be of any approved construction, and supplied with any number of branches, but the preferred construction is a single horizontal bore extending clear across and always open for the escape of the oil. The point 15 of the tip is elongated so as to extend somewhat above the axial center of the observation glass 8, and this end of the tip is tapered or beveled to a fine or practically needle point. of conical or bullet-nose or other suitable form, so as to constitute a sharp, attenuated point for collecting the oil in drops and quickly letting it go into the water of condensation with which the sight feed pocket is filled and by which the drops of oil are floated off to destination.

The feed tip shown in Fig. 3 is in all essential respects the same as that shown in Figs. 1 and 2, excepting that its profile is of curved lines, or bullet-nosed, instead of straight lines as in the other views. The feed tip shown in Fig. 4 differs from that shown in Fig. 3 in that the tapering point is extended somewhat below the transverse duct; and the feed tip shown in Fig. 5 differs in no other respects from that shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 than that it is of very much smaller dimensions.

If the prior art feed tip shown in Fig. 6 be .compared with the newly-invented feed tips shown in Figs. 2, 3, 4: and 5, it will be seen that the whole of that portion of the feed tip which is exposed within the feed tip pocket is. conical, or in other words, has an inclined or tapered periphery extending from the discharge end of the longitudinal duct or bore to the screwthreaded portion of the base, as indicated at 16, and that the discharge end 17 of the longitudinal duct or bore is located considerably below the axial center of the observation glass, whereas the tip of the present invention has a portion of that part which is exposed within the feed tip pocket cylindrical, as at 12, and its point, which is drawn out into an attenuated needle point, extends. above the axial center of the observation glass, and that the oil instead of floating ofl' first downward and then buoyed upward into a globule, tends to creep up the point of the tip, which is solid or imperforate and affords a very slight hold for the globule or drop as'it is formed, and thus provides for its, easy and quick'separation from the tip.

. Thedrops form more rapidly on the attenuated fine point than on the truncated prior art point, and more frequently, and are smaller than on the truncated conical point of the prior art. Tests so far made indicate that the smaller the feed tip the more rapid 'is the formation. of the drops and the greater their frequency.

Referring to Fig. 4L, it is to be said that tests show that a tip constructed with a tapered point extended below the transverse discharge duct, will also, as is the case with the other forms of the invention, give a reduction in the size of the oil drops and decrease in the tendency of the oil to creep down over the outer surface of the feed tip. In all of these new forms of feed tips, as already sufficiently indicated, the drops of oil are smaller than 'thoseformed by the tips of the prior art, and in their formation they do not creep down on the outer surface of the tip; and, furthermore, the formation of the drops is very regular in time and volume. \Vithout thereby intending to state definitively the theory of operation, it is observed that the smaller drop, the decrease in the tendency of the oil to float down on the outer surface of the feed tip, the regu larity in the formation and in the volume of the drops, and the regularity in the release of the formed drops from the tip, are due largely, if not wholly, to the fact that the oil is attracted from its point of exit from the transverse duct to the sharp needle point of the feed tip, where it speedily eoalesees into successive drops and these, for lack of holding surface, let go promptly upon formation. Furthermore, tests show that in using tips constructed in accordance with the present invention, there is no tendency for the oil to float ofi from them in films into contact with parts of the feed pocket, but that always and under all circumstances the drops form promptly and regularly in volume and frequency, and consequently the lubrication takes place with increased uniformity andefficiency as compared with the tips of the prior art.

I am aware that some attempts have previously been made to decrease the size and increase the frequency of the drops, by adding to the prior art tips a wire or needle point up which the oil will ascend, but these wires were prone to bend or become defective, especially in the jarring to which they are exposed on locomotives, and instead of the drops letting go in the center of the field of vision, they would let go at any point where the wire or needle happened to be, and thus not always be visible to the engineer. Tests have shown that the integral needle pointed tip of the present invention has an increased efiiciency of about twenty per cent. over the wire or needle auxiliary, and more than that, its point and its location relatively to the observation glass are not subject to change by movement of the locomotive, no matter how rough that movement may be.

What I claim is 1. A feed tip for lubrieator sight feeds, having a discharge end of cylindrical contour provided with a longitudinal duct and an elongated and attenuated solid point tapering from a point next to the end of said duct to the terminus of said point, and also provided with a transverse duct intersecting the longitudinal duct at its end adjacent to the tapering point.

2. A feed tip for lubricator sight feeds, having a discharge end of cylindrical contour provided with a longitudinal duct terminating in a transverse intersecting duct which is arranged wholly in the sight feed Car an intersecting transverse discharge duct,

the said tip throughout the remainder of its height being solid and tapering continuously from said transverse duct to a fine terminal drop-forming and releasing point.

a. A feed tip for lubricator sight feeds, having a discharge end of cylindrical con tour terminating in an elongated attenuated and imperforate needle point, the said tip having a longitudinal bore terminating short of the needle point and a transverse outlet or discharge bore intersecting the longitudinal bore at its end and arranged at the base of the needle point.

5. A feed tip for lubricator sight feeds, having a cylindrical discharge portion provided with an elongated attenuated and imperforate needle point and a longitudinal duct ending short of the point and intersected by a transverse exit at the base of the needle point, whereby the discharged oil tends to creep to the point of the tip and rapidly and regularly coalesce in drops which break ofi frequently and with regularity In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 18th day of March A. D. 1915.

FRANK WV. EDWARDS.

WVitnesses:

FRANK WV. FURRY, GEORGE M. DIOKSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

